Works Putting Faith on Display

Transcript

GRS 202
6/06/2021
Works Putting Faith on Display
Joshua 2; Hebrews 11:30-31
Gil Rugh

We’re going to go to the book of Joshua in your bibles. So if you would turn to the book of Joshua and the second chapter. We looked into the first chapter which formed and introduction to the book. Joshua is prepared with the instructions from God to begin, finally after a forty year wait, forty years after exiting Egypt because of sin, forty years in a death march while they waited for those over twenty years of age who had been part of the rebellion against God, the rejection of His promises. When the twelve spies went into the land some thirty-eight years earlier, they all died. Sort of a gloomy affair of just marching around, going nowhere for all these years as a consequence of sin. We always want to be careful. We never know exactly what the consequence is or will be. Israel had a tough time learning their lessons. They were grumblers, they were complainers, which was basically grumbling and complaining against God. They reached the point where there was no going back. After they heard what the consequences for their sin was remember, then they decided oh we will go into the land after all. But it was too late. Those who tried to go into the land suffered a severe defeat. They had been wandering around.

Now under Joshua’s leadership, Moses is dead, but the promises of God are not. They move on from one leader to another. Joshua is now the man. Verse 2 of chapter 1, said Moses, My servant, is dead but that doesn’t mean God’s plan and purposes have changed. He’s going to fulfill His promises. Cross this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I am giving to them. You see God’s sovereignty here. This was God’s gift to His people. He had promised it. He had promised it all the way back to Abraham. Now we’ve had six hundred years go by since Abraham, but God’s promises are still true. Verse 3, “Every place on which the soul of your foot treads I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses.” He could have said just as I promised Abraham because remember He told Abraham, “walk through the land. Every place the soul of your feet touches I have given it to you.” So, you see the consistency in the promises of God which is a great encouragement to us today. There are ups and downs, we stumble at times, things go on and we think, how does this fit in what God has promised but we know His promises will always be carried out, fulfilled as He promised. The encouragement was, the end of verse 5, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. And then that repeated exhortation, “be strong and courageous,” verse 6. Verse 7, “be strong and courageous,” down in the middle of verse 9, “be strong and courageous.” The end of verse 18, “only be strong and courageous.” A good reminder to us again. Whatever else, be strong and courageous. We stand firmly on the word of God, “be strong and courageous.”

So now the preparation comes to go into the land. Down in chapter 2, verse 9, there’ll be encouragement. When they get into the land they’ll meet a pagan Canaanite woman who was a prostitute. She will make a remarkable statement, verse 9 of chapter 2. She said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land.” Amazing. Israel’s had its ups and downs, its stumbles, its complaints, its grumblings. We get into the land and here we have a Canaanite woman telling them I know God is giving you the land. A great statement of her faith. It’s interesting, chapter 1 focuses on Joshua, that great man of God. Chapter 2 focuses on that very woman, Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute in the land that God has given to Israel. They will experience the devastating judgments of God on every man, woman, and child in the land. But Rahab stands out unique, one of God’s chosen people from the land of Canaan.

Chapter 2 opens up “Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, ‘Go view the land, especially Jericho.’” Just put up the map if you would Steve, a map here that will at least orient you a little bit. Abel Shittim, shittim means acacia tree. So here’s where they are. They have been wandering around down through here. They had come up. It didn’t go well, the spies they get turned back. They have been wandering around out here for all these years waiting for people to die off. A whole generation of people over twenty years of age are dying off. So they are here at Shittim. They had some trouble here sometime prior to this.

Come back to Numbers chapter 25. We’re not going to keep going back to the preparations for going in but in Numbers 25 what has happened in the preceding chapters, you remember that Balak, the pagan king, called Balaam, the pagan prophet who becomes an example in the New Testament of a pagan false prophet, to curse the people. God wouldn’t let Balaam curse Israel so he came up with an alternative plan that God would bring judgment on Israel. He encouraged the pagan king, Balak, to have the Moabite women lure the Israelite men into sexual relationships so while Israel, chapter 25 verse 1, “while Israel remained at Shittim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab and they invited the people to the sacrifice of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods. They don’t have the attention span of a two-year old. Here they go, here they go, here they go again, again, again. Balaam was right. God would judge and punish His people very severely for this kind of sinful rebellion. Balaam will pay a price when Israel does go into the land. One of the casualties among the Canannites will be Balaam.

Here they are at Shittim. Now they are there ready to go into the land on this occasion. So you see where we are here at Shittim and we’re going to cross over to Jericho. We’ll see Jericho is going to be at flood stage so this is not an easy crossing, but God is going to take care of that. So here we are, ready to go in. Joshua says let’s send some spies in, two men. They are going to go in. Earlier on the previous occasion, Numbers 13, they had sent a dozen men in. Ten of the twelve, Joshua and Caleb come back with the good report of trusting God, the other ten failed. God told them to send in the spies in Numbers on that previous occasion. He doesn’t give specific instructions here so we don’t know whether God had told Joshua to do it or it’s just a good military action and there’ll be a mixture as we go through Joshua of more clear what is God’s direct intervention and His indirect intervention. So part of it is Joshua is the military leader, he has to use the good sense that God has given him, what he has learned in functioning under the leadership of Moses.

So he sends two spies to go into the land and they cross over to Jericho because Jericho is the first major city they are going to confront and it’s important that they properly prepared, have scouted out the area and know what they are coming up against. Even when God is in it that doesn’t mean we just sit back as passive observers. Now God is going to intervene in a special way with Jericho. That does not mean that Joshua should not use military wisdom God has given him and go search out the city. So he sends these two men. They come into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab and lodged there.

There’s a lot of discussion about Rahab the harlot. Some commentators are very uncomfortable with her being called a harlot. In fact, Josephus the historian, a first century historian called her an innkeeper and many have picked that up. Some, it was almost humorous in reading the commentaries, I may read you one here in a little bit, of what they went through to try to say, well she wasn’t really a harlot any longer. She had reformed in prior time. She is a harlot. She’s a prostitute. These spies have come across and have tried to be inconspicuous, but word has gotten out, as you know. They come to the logical place. We may say, well, what are they doing going to the house of a prostitute? I think of it a little bit like you watch the old westerns and they have the saloon in the town and the saloon is also the hotel and it’s also the brothel for the town. In the those days there would have been that kind of mixture. So in effect, it could have been like what they would call an “inn” but the scripture is clear. Rahab’s role here was prostitution. This is the logical place for the men to go because it would be the place where you would go to stay. The best they have as an inn. That doesn’t mean they were going to get involved with the prostitutes here but it would be a place where there would be men coming and going so a good place in a significant city just to try to merge in and go where other men would be going and try to be unnoticed.

Now let me just say further, she is called a harlot here. Some make the point that the Hebrew word used here could refer to an inn or an innkeeper, but the scripture is clear on what she was. When you come to the New Testament, and you might as well jump back there. Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11 and we are in what we call the “heroes of the faith” in Hebrews 11, remember. Old Testament individuals who are marked out as examples for us of the kind of faith that we want to have in following their example in believing and trusting God. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 31 “By faith Rahab the harlot,” the word used here calling her a harlot. We have it in words like pornography, “porne.” So there’s no doubt scripture is focusing on the fact that she was a harlot, a prostitute. No covering that up. Somehow sometimes people feel like, well we’ve got to clean this up. We don’t want her to be that kind of woman. What we are really seeing is the grace of God at work here. That’s what she was. But God’s going to take hold of her, and does take hold of her, has prepared her heart and she places her faith in the God of Israel. But here she is as an example. “By faith Rahab the harlot,” the prostitute “did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace.” What a testimony! Here, fourteen hundred years later she is singled out as an example of faith.

Come over to James just after Hebrews, James chapter 2. Here he’s talking about the importance of faith that is demonstrated by works. He uses Abraham as an example and then who does he use? Rahab the prostitute! He’s talked about Abraham and then in verse 25 “in the same way” illustrating a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” Meaning if you’ve truly been saved by faith your life will be changed. Righteousness will be evident in your life. In the same way was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way. Just as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead.” In other words, saving faith changes a life. When a life is changed a lifestyle is changed. So yeah, it’s true, she would no longer continue to live the life of a prostitute. We’ll see more of that in a moment. She becomes part of the nation Israel in a very significant way.

Come back to Joshua chapter 2. I just want to be clear. This is the woman we are dealing with. She would have been well known in the city of Jericho. It was this kind of place because the sin of the people living here had ripened for judgment. Even though the spies had tried to come in, obviously unnoticed, under cover so to speak, verse 2 “It was told the king of Jericho saying, behold men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” The people in Canaan know the Jews are coming. They have been expecting them. These years of wilderness wandering have not been wasted. They have been God disciplining Israel and preparing them for the time when He will finally bring them into the land but He has also been preparing the Canaanites for what is coming. The people in the land of Canaan, as will be expressed here as we move along, had been fearing the coming of the Jews. Word has spread what God has done for the Jews even in their wilderness wanderings and been part of God’s work in preparing Canaanites for their coming. “The king of Jericho,” verse 3, “sent word to Rahab saying, “bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house for they have come to search out all the land.”” It’s not like she is a conspirator here, just recognizes the logical thing. These men who have come to your house, they are spies so put them out. But Rahab says in verse 4 “for the woman had taken the two men and hidden them and she said, “yes the men came to me but I did not know where they were from and it came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark the men went out.” She said yeah, they came, I didn’t know who they were. I have a lot of men come to visit. They didn’t stay that long. They moved on. There’s no reason for the king to think that she would be lying so she tells them when it came dark and it was time to shut the gate, they went out. Evidently that would not be unusual. People in the city for the business but at night they closed the gates. So, knowing that it was coming time to close gates there would have probably been quite a few people leaving the city. Wouldn’t want to think just two men going out the gate but with the gates closing those living outside the gates, remember the city is here, there is some people living in the city. Rahab lives in the city and there are others but they have walls around the city, but many people are living out and doing farming and all of that, but when enemies come they will retreat into the city. That will happen in Jericho where the walls and all the gates protect. So the gates are closed at night. Business is not going to transpire.

So these men, she in effect says, when it was time to close the gates they left. There were probably quite a number of people leaving so in the crowd they wouldn’t have been picked up. She encourages them that I didn’t know where they were from but I’ll tell you, get after them. if they are spies you need to chase them down. “Pursue them quickly,” she says at the end of verse 5, “you’ll overtake them,” so she is very convincing. Again, there’s no reason for the king not to believe her. A lot of men come to visit but some of them she might have known, some of them she probably didn’t know. They came to Jericho for business and part of their business was pleasure while they were there but they’re gone. They are spies, get after them, you can overtake them, it hasn’t been that long. But she still has them in her house.

We’re told in verse 6, “but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof.” Up there on the roof, these flat roofed homes to dry out. Here the commentaries will often go all over the place because the big concern they have is, is it alright for Rahab to lie. I have a number of articles on that, but I won’t read them to you. I don’t see it that big of deal. This goes on all the time. Is lying okay? We don’t want to drift into what we call “situation ethics” where the situations decides your conduct but we do have the moral standard that God has given. The lie is told here to protect the spies who are to act on God’s behalf in the conflict that is going on to protect God’s representatives, God’s people as she knows them to be, those acting on behalf of the living God. Those cases we won’t turn there but let me just give you some other examples. In those passages, obviously lying is condemned. “Thou shalt not lie” but in Exodus chapter 1 verses 15-20 the Hebrew midwives lied about killing the Hebrew children. God blessed them for it. Remember they said the Hebrew women, they are healthy, they give birth quickly. We haven’t been able to kill their children, their males, because by the time we get there they’ve already given birth and hidden the kids. That was a lie! They were really protecting the Hebrew women and the Hebrew babies that were being born and God blessed them for it.

In Judges chapter 4 and chapter 5, the woman Jael tricked Sisera. Remember the military commander and his army is being defeated. He comes by the tent of Jael, the woman, and she says come on in. I’ll hide you and she gives him some milk to drink. He lays down and she takes the tent peg and the hammer, puts it on his forehead and goes pow! Well, she lied, deceived him. She says come in here and I’ll hide you and she nails him to the ground. That wasn’t nice, but she is praised for doing it. God’s prophetess praises her for the action. It was a lie. It was deception.

Solomon, he tricked two women prostitutes. Remember two babies born, on the night one prostitute rolled over and smothered her child so she switched the babies while the other woman was sleeping. Solomon says bring me a sword. I’ll cut the living baby in half, and we’ll just share it. Well, he was deceiving those women because he wasn’t really going to cut the baby in half. As soon as he got the response he was looking for he says okay, this is the mother.

So these kind of things go on. We’ll see when we get to the battle in Joshua chapter 8 Joshua deceives the people in the city and lures them out so he can burn the city and kill them. This goes on. We want to be careful but there are times when it would be acceptable to lie and deceive. It’s part of war all the time. You don’t send your enemy a note saying we’re going to be attacking you at eight o’clock in the morning, this is what we’re going to do. You deceive them into thinking you’re going to do something else. Well you say Christians don’t deceive, Christians don’t lie. But it is part of war and expected and goes on in the conflicts that go on. In spiritual war sometimes it’s acceptable. During World War II some hid the Jews because they believed they needed to be protected. Some did it because they believed they were God’s people. Should they say, oh yeah, I have some Jews hiding in the attic. No, we’d say on that occasion it was acceptable. Again, we want to be careful we don’t say, well then everything goes. Everybody decides but there are biblical principles that guide us. She recognizes these are God’s people. They are acting on behalf of the living God. I’m on their side so the way she handles it is acceptable here.

They pursue them. They can’t find them because obviously she’s got them hiding under the flax on her roof. Before they lay down she comes and talks to them. So they obviously weren’t there for sex. They were there on a mission. They were scoping out the city. They were finding out what they were going to face. She comes up and talks to them so they are going to rest here for awhile because they can’t get out of the city yet because the gates are now locked. So they are locked in, they’ll have to wait until the right time when the gates are open in the morning and people begin to come and go in a traffic kind of way. Remember when the gates of Jerusalem were closed later in their history and those with merchandise and wares were warned to not come on the Sabbath to sell. They closed the gates. If you are out there on the Sabbath we’re going to bring punishment on you. So here she comes up to talk to them. “Before they lay down she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land.” Wow! “I know the Lord has given you the land and that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.” Here’s a woman of great faith. She’s not afraid because everybody in the land is afraid but she recognizes it’s the hand of Israel’s God that is at work here. She repeats almost verbatim what was said many years earlier.

Come back to Exodus, chapter 15, Exodus chapter 15. We are going to look at verses 14-16 here. They have crossed the Red Sea, Moses is singing, celebrating that. In your Bible in chapter 15 it may be entitled “The Song of Moses and Israel,” verse 2 said “the Lord is my strength and song. He’s my salvation.” The celebration of God bringing them through the sea when He parted the waters and so on, all that went on with that. You come to verse 14 “the peoples have heard and they tremble, anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia, the chiefs of Edom were dismayed, the leaders of Moab.” This is the region where Israel is now and had come up to when they are at Shittim, Edom, Moab, Ammon. The leaders of Moab trembling comes upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them by the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone until Your people pass over, Lord, until Your people pass over whom You have purchased and bring them in and plant them in you inheritance.

Come back to Joshua. This is what she’s says. “I know the Lord is giving you this land,” chapter 2 verse 9 of Joshua, “the terror of You has fallen on us. All the inhabitants of the land have melted away before You.” The fighting spirit has gone out of them, that’s what Moses anticipated. In seeing what God had done in bringing them through the waters of the sea as they parted now he sings this song. He is singing celebrating the demoralization of the people but my goodness, it took forty years. Israel should have believed this earlier when the twelve spies went in but no. So now we’re going in. The amazing thing is, this Canaanite woman is familiar with this. Much of what has gone on in Israel’s early history going all the way back to the parting of the Red Sea and Israel’s deliverance from Egypt has made its way into Canaan. All these years it hasn’t been forgotten; certain things have been impressed on them. So even though as we noted, God didn’t send missionaries into Canaan, the word about His mighty workings spread through the land of Canaan and in God’s grace it was used to bring redemption, salvation to Rahab the prostitute.

What she wants to do, she really firmly believes that what God has promised them is going to happen, I want to negotiate the safety of my family. You see she’s abandoning any connection to the Canaanites, to the people of Jericho. She’s identifying herself. She’s put her life on the line. If word got out that she had harbored the spies it’s all over for her and her family. But she has full confidence so what does she want? Look at verse 10. “We have heard,” you see what God has done to the morale of the people of the land in verse 9. Verse 10 “We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt.” That was forty years ago but the Canaanites heard about that and they didn’t forget those people wandering around in the desert while a whole generation dies off. The Canaanites still hadn’t forgotten what God did. So, we don’t know, maybe the “song of Moses” as it was sung through Israel had made its way to Canaan. So her wording in verse 9 is very similar to the words of Moses. It may have just been Moses’ prophecy is seen to be true in the words of this Canaanite woman. “We know what God did when He dried up the water of the Red Sea before you.” Still fresh in their mind and not only that, “what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.” The impact that was made in a lasting way upon this Canaanite woman and the Canaanites, but somehow the Israelites…you know we come through the account in Exodus then Numbers and Deuteronomy, is just constant. You go from one chapter to another, and Israel complained, and Israel groaned and Israel was upset with Moses and Aaron. Here the Canaanites, they are petrified and the people of God are somewhat blinded to the mighty power of their God and the importance of carefully obeying Him. This Canaanite woman wants to get on the right side. She wants to get on God’s side because she has not doubt He’s going to do what He has done before.

I want you to promise to protect and care for me and my family. Look at verse 11. “When we heard of it,” “when we heard of it,” well the first thing she had mentioned was the drying up of the Red Sea. That goes back to the Exodus, forty years earlier, “our hearts melted.” Sihon and Og, come back to Numbers 21, you may not have that fresh in your mind. Numbers 21, this is just before the account of Balak and Balaam that we noted and read about what happened at Shittim a little bit ago when we got to Numbers 25. Numbers 21, verse 21 of chapter 21, “then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites saying, “let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into the fields or vineyards,” in other words we won’t go and steal your crops and do those kind of things. We won’t drink water from your wells. So again. We’re just going to follow the road. It is just a route for us. We’re not going to take any of your resources. We will go by the king’s highway until we have passed through your border. “But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his borders so Sihon gathered all his people, went out against Israel in the wilderness, came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the borders of the sons of Ammon was Jazer. Israel took all these cities and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and all her villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites who had fought against the former kind of Moab and had taken his land.” Then you come on down, for time and you have the other battle. You have the execution of Sihon and same thing happened to Og. That made its way because these were two powerful kings. They couldn’t stand against the Jews. There was a miracle done for Israel so Israel’s God does miracles like opening the sea, and what’s God going to do to get them across the Jordan? A repeat. He’s going to stop the flow of the Jordan at its high time, flood time. So all these things have prepared Canaanites, all these things have made an impression. The Jews didn’t know it. It’s easy to see the failures of people in past history but it would have been foreboding. These were mighty people in the land of Canaan. Jericho is a mighty city but God said He’d give it to them. They look around, there’s a lot of reasons the ten spies had where I just don’t think we are prepared to take on these people. That’s what faith is. We have the promise of God. That’s why Joshua was told how many times in chapter 1, “be strong and courageous.” This is what the people have to do. Why? Because God has promised. “We walk by faith not by sight.” We have to be careful in our own circumstances we can become like Israel. Sometimes I reflect on this when I’m in the Old Testament I say, it doesn’t seem so complicated. If they had just done what God said. They had every reason to believe God and trust Him. He had never failed. He promised I will not fail you, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” Yet sometimes everything around seems to press in and I just don’t know. So a reminder to us to remember “all these things are written,” Romans tells us, “for our admonition” so we can learn from them. Learn something about trusting God. Those examples of faith, Rahab brought up to us in Hebrews and in James, remember that kind of faith! All she has is what God has done in Israel but she’s living in Canaan, but I believe what God has promised God will do. And what He has done in the past is an encouragement to me to trust Him.

Back to Joshua chapter 2 verse 11 “when we heard it,” about the waters of Egypt, about what had happened to Sihon and Og, “when we heard it our hearts melted. No courage remained in any man in any longer because of you for the Lord your God, He is God of heaven above and on earth beneath.” Just amazing faith in the Canaanite woman who has been a prostitute. All she has is what she has heard. Israel was there and experienced it and didn’t trust God. “But the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” The Canaanites had their own gods. They had many of them but her faith is unshakeable in the God of Israel, and all she has is what she had heard. She didn’t’ get to be there and see it firsthand. She didn’t get there and be part of what God was doing but she believes that He is the only true God.

Back in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 39 this verse she says almost repeats verbatim, very similar to what Moses said in Deuteronomy 4:39. Again you wonder how much of this, because it was recorded for Israel but some of this had made its way out and this woman has this kind of faith. Her faith is going to be the encouragement to Israel. It’s amazing how God works. Here you have all these Israelites now having witnessed the death of those over twenty years of age who had to die under the punishment of God and still God has to give them encouragement. That reminder, “be strong” and be “courageous.” Down in verse 24 they said to Joshua “surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands moreover all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us.” You know where that comes from? Verse 11 “when the spies come back.” You know where the encouragement came from? From a believing Canaanite woman living in Jericho that they get encouraged and strengthen. Sometimes I’m amazed at the weakness of my own faith. Here God brings encouragement to strengthen faith of Israel from the faith of a Canaanite woman living in Jericho who has never had the privilege of living in the nation of Israel, seeing God work, God provide mammon, God providing the quail, God providing in so many ways. All she has is what she’s heard. What this God is like and what God has promised and I believe He’ll do what He has promised. So that will help strengthen Israel. So God brings encouragement back to Israel. No wonder that she is in the hall of faith as we call it in Hebrews 11 and used as an example along with Abraham of having works that support our faith.

So verses 12 and following, what she wants is “please swear to me by the Lord,” not by her gods but this is a commitment, a vow you will make before your God. “Swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you will also deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth,” faithfulness. She’s asking for the “hesed” that covenant promise, faithfulness. “Spare my father, my mother, my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them and deliver our lives from death.” She has a great faith! I don’t want you just to spare my life. I want to include my whole family, my relatives, my parents, my brothers, my sisters, and all who belong to them. She really believes. “So the men said to her, “Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours.” So if you go and tell we were spies and we were here then this covenant is cancelled, this agreement is cancelled. “It shall come about when the Lord gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” So she has secured that. Now this all depends on the God of Israel doing what He has promised otherwise she could be out on a limb here because somewhere along the line word could get out, you know what? Rahab told a lie. Those spies didn’t leave when she said they did. You never know how word is going to leak out but she is fully confident. What did she tell her whole family? Her parents, her brothers, her sisters, their families when they have to gather together in her house?

“She let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the wall.” And you know, you’re familiar, some of you have visited over in Israel and we know from other places as well in these kind of cities houses could be built on the wall. But they were high up. You don’t build it on ground level because part of the reason for having the wall and gates is the enemy don’t get in. So as one person noted this window could be thirty-five feet high in a wall like this. So they are up in the air. “She let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall.” Isn’t it amazing, we talked about the providence of God this morning, the providence of God. He had prepared all the details. She happens to be living on the wall so there’s a window there so she can let them down out of so they won’t have to wait until the gate opens in the morning to go out with the crowd. God has made special provision here. They can be let out at night when nobody will notice. They don’t have to try to sneak out. What if her house was in the city proper? But God’s providence directing and guiding all along, earlier, so she would be in the right place at the right time. “Go to the hill country,” she tells them now, because remember the spies have gone out on the normal road but she says these spies have left and assumed they are going to try and get back across the Jordan. “So go to the hill country so that the pursuers will not happen upon you.” I was reading on the account there and there are limestone caves there that they have said were hundreds of them so it would be a place they go. It’s not the normal route. If you’re trying to get back across the Jordan, no, you go off this way and you wait until it’s safe. So, you go there, you hide so the pursuers do not happen upon you. “Hide yourselves there for three days” so she’s specific. She knows how the city works, how this will go, about how long these pursuers will try to hunt these men down. You wait there three days then the pursuers will come back. They’ll give up. They’ll assume you escaped. Then you can go on your way. So she’s really going out of her way making sure these are safe.

The men said to her, “we shall be free from this oath which you have made us swear unless we come into the land you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down. Gather to yourself into the house your father, your mother, brothers, all your household. It shall come about anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street we are going to kill them. And it will be your responsibility not ours. We will be free. Anyone who is in the house we will be accountable for them. “If you tell this business of ours,” verse 20, “we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear. She said, “According to your words, so be it.” She sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and came to the hill country and remained there for three days until the pursuers returned. Now the pursuers had sought them all along the road but had not found them. Then the two men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they related to him all that had happened to them.” We’ve had good report. She’s told us everybody in the land of Canaan is scared to death. There’s no fight in them. That doesn’t mean they won’t still have to follow certain procedures and so on.

This scarlet cord, some say it’s a sign of the blood of Christ. There’s nothing in scripture that makes that identification so I think we want to be careful. Some people are very uncomfortable, as I mentioned, some commentators and one commentator makes a big point “the scarlet cord is another piece of evidence that it had been a long time since Rahab had been a prostitute.” So in his commentary he says “where does the red rope fit in? This is further proof that she was not a prostitute. She might have been many years ago.” He goes on to tell you all that went on to make the scarlet dye. When the ancients made the dye they would boil it out of rock. Since liquid dye was difficult to transport and store they would put a piece of rope into the dye to absorb it. cloth makers then would buy pieces of the rope to dye their clothes and we’re going on. Then they’d boil the cloth. Then they’d drop a piece of cloth in it, dye the rope, and that’s why they would get a short piece. So if you’re getting a whole long piece to hang down a window Rahab must have been at this a long time. This is the important point. Rahab had enough rope to hang all the way down the wall so the men could climb down. Further more it’s important to note that the wall may have been as high, and his estimate is thirty feet. Evidently Rahab’s cloth business was no minor operation. She may have changed her profession some time before.

That’s a lot to try to get around what the scripture says. In the Old Testament and New Testament alike Rahab is a prostitute. Now I don’t believe she continued that afterwards because we are told, come to Joshua chapter 6 verse 25, they burn the city and so on, we’ll come through this in our next studies but verse 25 “however Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. So obviously she’s no longer functioning as a Canaanite prostitute. I take it, it would have changed when she has this confrontation. She has prepared herself, she meets these men because what is she to do? Here she is in this city. I believe in the God of Israel, then God provides these men and she is saved.

The most amazing thing to me in all of this is how Rahab fits in the future of Israel. Many of you have studied this and know but turn to Matthew chapter 1, Matthew chapter 1. Rahab is going to marry an Israelite man. In Matthew chapter 1 we have the genealogy of Jesus, “the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah.” For time come down, you see the connection from Abraham and so on. Verse 4 “Ram was the father of Amminadab; and Amminadab the father of Nashon, Nashon the father of Salmon, Salmon was the father of Boaz by, there she is, Rahab. My, my, my so she is one of the four women listed here in the genealogy of Jesus. The bible is not ashamed that she was Rahab the prostitute. It just shows God’s grace that would save even a Canaanite prostitute woman.

I think we ought to see this as an example of God’s grace and not try to cover over that she’s a prostitute. Well she probably long left that. I think she probably was in the business of making cloth and dying items and being an innkeeper. Well maybe she did all of that but the bible says her prime profession was a prostitute. That’s how God wants her to be recognized. Why? Because it magnifies His grace.

One more passage and we’re done. Come over to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, look at verse 9. Now obviously we are in New Testament times here in the epistle of Paul but note what he says. “Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, neither fornicators nor idolators nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” I fear sometimes we as believers, if we are not careful, we can slide over to a little bit of Phariseeism. Yes those people, they are so bad, and they’re beyond help and then the next verse “such were some of you but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.” What more could you do? God’s work is complete. Those ugly, filthy, defiled sinners in verses 9 and 10 are now washed clean, sanctified, set apart by God for Himself, same basic word we get the word holy from. They are now holy ones. “You were justified,” declared righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus, the spirit of our God. So when she puts her faith in the God of Israel and His promises she is saved. So she is still known, even in the New Testament, as Rahab the prostitute because I think God wants to remind us of His grace, and it is a saving grace. Others in the land of Canaan would have known what she knew. She says the whole land is aware of these things and everybody’s afraid but that didn’t mean they believed but she believed it and was saved.

I think sometimes when I read this I wonder why we are going out of our way to try to play down she was a prostitute. God just didn’t find someone who was so good and so righteous and doing so many good things that He decided to save her. He reaches down to the bottom of the pot to a prostitute and saves her. The reminder is that saving faith changes a life and Rahab’s works in saving, if you will, these spies and declaring her faith in the God of Israel is the kind of works that demonstrated her faith was a saving faith. We praise God for that.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank you Lord for your word. Thank you for this account in your Old Testament scriptures written not just to fill in history, not just make us aware of what happened a long time ago, but to remind us and encourage us. These are written for our admonition as we are living in these last days that our faith may be strengthened. That we might be reminded that You are a God who acts on behalf of Your people who always work in Your purposes in difficulties and in the blessings. We want our faith to be strengthened so that we live lives that are a testimony of Your greatness and Your power and Your faithfulness. Bless us in the week before us. Use us to bring honor to Yourself. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.